Lenin mausoleum

Lenin mausoleum - darkometer rating : 7 - One of the " Big 4 " mausoleums of deceased communist leaders. This one, in Russia 's capital Moscow , is "the original", the first one, which all the others are modelled on. > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations More background info: Lenin was the leader of the Russian Revolution and first head of the resultant Soviet Union until his untimely death in 1924 (aged only 53 – see Gorky Leninskiye ). Under his successor Stalin , attempts were made to preserve the corpse, and once the pioneering embalming process had been successful, the body was put on public display, first in a simple temporary mausoleum made of wood, later replaced by the current structure. Lenin's body has over the many years since his demise needed a lot of attention by an expert team responsible for the preservation of the corpse. The constant monitoring and re-embalming of the body, basically regular baths in a vat of preservatives, has cost his country dearly over the years, but what's a few million if it's for the preservation of the empty shell of the man who is arguably communism 's greatest saint (alongside Marx , of course, who's buried in a conventional grave at Highgate cemetery in London ). The most infamous of all Soviet leaders, Josef Stalin , shared the mausoleum with Lenin for a while, from his death in 1953 until 1961, when he was removed and buried by the Kremlin Wall, like other Soviet leaders after him (except Khrushchev, who's at Novodvichy ).